The long-term effects of free care on birth outcomes: Evidence from a national policy reform in Zambia.

ABSTRACT: As women in many countries still fail to give birth in facilities due to financial barriers, many see the abolition of user fees as a key step on the path towards universal coverage. We exploited the staggered removal of user charges in Zambia from 2006 to estimate the effect of user fee removal up to five years after the policy change. We used data from the birth histories of two nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys to implement a difference-in-differences analysis and identify the causal impact of removing user charges on institutional and assisted deliveries, caesarean sections and neonatal deaths. We also explored heterogeneous effects of the policy. Removing fees had little effect in the short term but large positive effects appeared about two years after the polic

SUBMITTER: Lagarde M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8889414 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature